Umberto Lenzi and his movies

This Italian director is a cult name, however he ain't one of my favourites. Still, if you are a fan of Italian cult cinema, you need to watch his movies. He made so many that it's impossible to watch all of them. Lots of them are probably not worth watching, especially the early ones. He worked since 1958 till early 1990's and he did just every genre you could think of. Adventure movies, spy movies, crime movies, horror movies, westerns, gialli, zombie films, cannibal films, sword and sandals, comedies, sex comedies, war movies... just everything. The genre he was at closest to became its master were the poliziotteschi, but he also made the first cannibal movie and did a few gialli before Argento made them famous. Let's take a brief look on a few of his notable movies.

SAMSON AND THE SLAVE QUEEN (1963)

I haven't seen this one yet. The original title is Zorro contro Maciste. Peplum meets Zorro, great! Possibly a dull movie with the muscleman Alan Steel / Sergio Ciani and with Pierre Brice as Zorro, the hero from the Winnetou movies. I will probably write something on them too.

SANDOKAN THE GREAT (1963)

Before Sergio Sollima made his famous TV series about Sandokan with Kabir Bedi, there were two series of movies in the early 60's, one by Umberto Lenzi and one by Luigi Capuano. Lenzi had Steve Reeves as the titular hero, and therefore more money and more fame. I will probably watch it someday, but I will be definitely missing the brilliant song by De Angelis brothers.

THE LAST GLADIATOR (1964)

One of many peplum films, also called sword and sandals movies. This one stars Richard Harrison and not Steve Reeves, the biggest star of the genre.

SUPERSEVEN CALLS CAIRO (1965)

From adventure movies to spy movies, this 007 clone is starring someone called Roger Browne. There's Rosalba Neri in it, but probably in a minor part.

KRIMINAL (1966)

A comic book movie, finally something I've seen. Glenn Saxson, a Dutch actor, is something between masked thief and James Bond. Sometimes entertaining, sometimes boring, not very notable movie by Lenzi. But he appears himself for a while in a silent part.

DESERT COMMANDOS (1967)

First of the subgenre "macaroni combat", popular in the late 60's in Italy. The best of those movies was made 10 years after the main wave, it's of course Castellari's Inglorious Bastards. I haven't seen any other movie of this genre, just beginnings of a few of them, and I found the rest very boring. So this one is probably one of those Lenzi movies I will skip. But he introduced the genre to Italy.

ALL OUT (1968)

A spaghetti western, one of his two, both starring John Ireland. The other one is A Colt for Hundred Coffins. This one is slightly better, but none of them is really good. Lenzi didn't like the westerns very much. This one has both the greatest Spanish spaghetti western villains, Fernando Sancho and Eduardo Fajardo, but unfortunately they don't share any scene together.

PARANOIA (1969)

First of his gialli with Carroll Baker, made in the vein of The Sweet Body of Deborah. I haven't watched it, and since I wasn't a fan of the Deborah movie and I'm not a huge fan of Ms. Baker, I won't probably watch this or the following movies, A Quiet Place to Kill (1970) and So Sweet, So Perverse (1970), very soon. There is a title confusion - this movie was originally called Orgasmo in Italy and Paranoia in the U.S., and then came a Lenzi movie with Baker called Paranoia in Italy and A Quiet Place to Kill in the U.S. Lenzi has also made another giallo with Baker called A Knife of Ice (1972), but this one looks more in the vein of the Argento movies, it has Ida Galli and Eduardo Fajardo. I'll give it a chance. To add more confusion, there's a Lenzi giallo from 1971 called An Ideal Place to Kill, this time starring the very young Ornella Muti.

SEVEN BLOODSTAINED ORCHIDS (1972)

I still haven't seen this giallo classic, and the reason are probably the lead actors. It's great to have Marisa Mell and Marina Malfatti as the victims, it's great to have Bruno Corazzari in one of the parts, but the leads are played by Antonio Sabato and Uschi Glas. I hate Sabato and I don't care about Glas. I'll give it a chance someday definitely.

THE MAN FROM DEEP RIVER (1972)

The very first of the cannibal movies, later made famous by Ruggero Deodato. I'm not a big fan of cannibals or zombies, so I haven't watched it and probably won't. It has Ivan Rassimov, he is cool.

ALMOST HUMAN (1974)

Not the first Lenzi's eurocrime, that was Gang War in Milan from the previous year (with that asshole Sabato and with Mell), but probably his very best one. Tomas Milian shines as a ruthless mad criminal who would do just anything and when someone bothers him, he kills him. It's so easy, isn't it? Sometimes there was too much violence, but it didn't matter that much. Henry Silva is not a good choice for the policeman, but he was a replacement for someone else. (Lenzi claims it was Richard Conte who died, but that happened in 1975, after the movie was finished.)

EYEBALL (1975)

The last of Lenzi's gialli (the only one I didn't mention was Spasmo from the previous year), probably the most trashy one, but a very funny one. Especially the tourists are really funny. Stupid, bloody and very entertaining.

SYNDICATE SADISTS (1975)

Tomas Milian is Rambo! Yes, his character is called that way, but he's more of a Clint Eastwood loner. Not the best eurocrime, but an entertaining movie nevertheless.

VIOLENT NAPLES (1976)

Lenzi took over the second part of the inspector Betti trilogy with Maurizio Merli - the other parts were directed by Marino Girolami (credited as Franco Martinelli for some reason). Co-starring John Saxon and Barry Sullivan, very violent, action-packed eurocrime, but one of the better ones.

ROME ARMED TO THE TEETH (1976)

Most people love it. It's violent, brutal, dirty, it has Merli, Milian and Arthur Kennedy. I didn't like it. Too episodic, too autotelic. Ten minutes of gangrape and then just Merli arrives, shoots everybody and it's done? Why did we watch it? For the naked girl? I disdain the scene. Ivan Rassimov also appears, but his part is brief and useless. There is another part called The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist (1977), again with Merli and Milian (but in another part) and with John Saxon too. Lenzi did also From Corleone to Brooklyn with Merli in 1979.

FREE HAND FOR A TOUGH COP (1976)

I just mention it because it's the first movie with the popular character of Monnezza played by Tomas Milian. Lenzi did another one with him, Brothers Till We Die (1978) and Milian did another one, Destruction Force (1977), but this time with Stelvio Massi, which lead to a clash between Lenzi and Milian. I will surely watch this one, it has also Henry Silva, Claudio Cassinelli, Nicoletta Machiavelli and many other character actors.

THE GREATEST BATTLE (1978)

Lenzi probably tried to make his own A Bridge Too Far, so he had many stars in this one - Henry Fonda, Van Johnson, Stacy Keach, Helmut Berger, John Huston, Ray Lovelock, Giuliano Gemma, Ida Galli, Edwige Fenech and Orson Welles as the narrator. I will definitely watch it someday. But it's not very popular one.

NIGHTMARE CITY (1980)

Fulci did Zombi 2, Lenzi had to do his own zombie movie. But he objected that they are not zombies, they are "infected-a peeeopleee!" He wouldn't be very pleased with the Czech DVD title - "The Big Attack of the Zombies". In the movie stars Hugo Stiglitz, who is now most known because of Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and the character called after him. I haven't watched this.

CANNIBAL FEROX (1981)

Also known as The Women from the Deep River, one of Lenzi's cannibal movies of the 1980's. I guess my stomach doesn't want me to watch this. Co-starring the Czechoslovakian actress Zora Kesslerová (credited as Zora Kerowa).


And that's probably it. The movies he did afterwards are not very famous, not very interesting. Some of them he signed as "Humphrey Humphreys".What a stupid name. He made a few war movies, a few horrors, a few comedies. But he is, and will be most remembered for the stuff I listed above.